Amphenol Reports Great Earnings, Guidance Not Bad

Amphenol (APH) had a great report. For Q4, APH earned 55 cents a share, three cents more than the Street was expecting. Last year, APH made 43 cents a share for Q4. Even better, the company gave good guidance going forward:

For 2008, the company expects a profit between $2.18 and $2.25 per share on revenue between $3.1 billion and $3.18 billion.Last year, profit reached $353.2 million, or $1.94 per share, and sales hit $2.85 billion.

Analysts project earnings of $2.22 and revenue at $3.13 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

"We are cautiously optimistic (Yuck! I hate the phrase! – EE) about continuing improvement in the short term and very confident about the long term outlook for continued growth and profitability," the company said in a statement.

For the current quarter, Amphenol anticipates net income of 50 cents to 52 cents per share and revenue between $740 million and $755 million.

Analysts expect a profit of 51 cents per share and revenue of $741 million.

Personally, I was looking for a little better guidance than what we got. Although, APH had a pretty strong run from August to December, so maybe it’s simply profit-taking today. Assuming $2.22 a share for 2008, that’s a P/E of 16.5, which isn’t bad for APH.